Good news for the arts community in Saskatoon and especially for the Riversdale neighborhood...
Arts groups excited project's end in sight
David Hutton, The StarPhoenix
Published: Friday, August 10, 2007
It's almost time for a pair of local arts groups to stop renovating and do what they're supposed to do.
"It's been like working two jobs for us," said Laura Margita, executive director of Paved Arts. "When this is done, we're going to be able to fly."
The $100-million Building Communities fund, announced during the provincial budget earlier this year, will contribute $234,000 to help Paved Arts and AKA Gallery, which together comprise 20 Above Arts Centre, expand into a cutting-edge art gallery and new media facility.
The artist-run centre, currently in the middle of renovations, located on 20th Street in Riversdale, came alive with colourful balloons and a hodge-podge of politicians and local artists at a press conference Thursday morning.
Construction of the $1-million facility began in May 2005 and the centre's board has attempted to secure funding since that time. Renovations are expected to be completed by the end of March 2008.
"This gives us the remaining puzzle pieces needed to complete the renovations . . . and become a cultural landmark," said Cindy Baker, co-ordinator of AKA gallery.
The building, which is owned by the not-for-profit centre, gives stability to the organization, said Tim Dallett, Paved's artistic director.
"The idea is that we bring the gallery together with laboratories, edit suites or studios that artists might not be able to afford on their own," he said.
"It's a way of democratizing art and increasing access to the ability to make art."
The renovated centre, one of only a few of its kind in the country, will give local artists a place to work with new equipment from different mediums and display their work. It will house galleries, production facilities, an arts resource centre, an auditorium space for screenings and lectures and an artist residency space.
The next challenge for the arts centre will be making a connection with the community, Margita said.
But they're hoping the hands-on production side of the centre, and putting new multimedia equipment like high-definition video cameras and edit suites into artists' hands, will help the centre grow.
"This will be a backbone for me," said Aleyna Stene, a 23-year-old local multimedia artist and hip-hop producer.
The centre will allow Stene to produce albums and work with younger artists in-house, and in the inner city, instead of having to pay big bucks for production space.
Stene just finished producing a 10-track album of young Saskatchewan hip-hop artists.
"It's going to be a lot more accessible for me and the young artists I work with," Stene said. "People are going to want to come here."
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© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007
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